Day Wave – Nothing at All
Jackson Phillips has only been creating music as Day Wave since late 2014 – he was one half of Californian electropop duo Carousel before that – but already the 25-year-old DIY lo-fi synth/guitar kid has caused quite a stir with his downcast surf pop that makes him sound like a one-man Diiv, or a lonesome Drums. Phillips is a bit of an outsider, even a solipsist, who writes, produces and performs all of his songs, tracking each instrument himself on an old reel-to-reel. According to his forthcoming single - We Try But We Don’t Fit In - isolation is getting to him: he has even got a song, Nothing at All, that finds him moaning “What am I good for?”, answering himself: “Nothing at all”.
Sunflower Bean – I Hear Voices
Sunflower Bean are an indie rock’n’roll outfit from Brooklyn who were named the best band at The Great Escape this year by NME. They are very NME-ish: a female-fronted trio making a psych/garage/drone-heavy sound with a slight krautrock inflection. “Heavy” is the operative word: think a shouty Debbie Harry fronting a sludgier, Sabbath-worshipping Spacemen 3 for some idea of what teenagers Julia Cumming (vocals/bass), Nick Kivlen (vocals/guitar) and Jacob Faber (drums) do on I Hear Voices (their new single out on 24 July through Fat Possum) and their self-released Show Me Your Seven Secrets EP from late last year, which features a track entitled Tame Impala, a homage to the Aussie psychedelicists.
Close Talker – Burnstick
Close Talker are a Canadian indie rock band with a new EP available on Nevado Music/Rough Trade from 15 June. Names offered as soundalikes include Local Natives, Bombay Bicycle Club, Deerhunter and Death Cab For Cutie, although even U2 have been cited. Theirs is a twitchily rhythmic, wan indie, with some pretensions towards epic, ringing guitars, and vocals that express rapture and longing, often at once. They have two albums on Spotify, but it’s the more recent Flux (2014), featuring this track Burnstick, that you want: it’s mournful, with choruses that are both soaring and sad, earning a rave review fromSpin magazine – “rigid yet sanguine … with achingly euphoric lyricism”.
Boycrush ft Madeira – Flirt
Boycrush is Auckland-based producer Alistair Deverick, and Madeira is Kim Pflaum, who last year earned a rave review at the Guardian online as one third of chillwave-y disco types Yumi Zouma and is now working solo, as well as doing collaborations like this. Flirt is a lovely piece of summery electro fluff from the Girls On Top EP, with all the woozy, pillowy synths you could want, bouncy funk-lite beats and a vocal melody that melts in the ear.
Rangleklods – Lost U
Rangleklods – Danish male-female duo Esben Nørskov Andersen and Pernille Smith-Sivertsen – have been going for a while, to growing worldwide acclaim. Their moody synthscapes have earned them comparisons to artists as varied as Caribou and Depeche Mode, but their new (second) album, Straitjacket, will appeal to fans of 80s techno-pop, although some of the squeally noises suggest exposure to more recent electronic developments. Unusually, Andersen and Smith-Sivertsen take turns to sing leads, so it’s like having Dave Gahan and Annie Lennox in one act. Actually, her voice isn’t as strident as Lennox’s – it’s more of a coo than a caterwaul, heard to impressively breathy effect on the single Schoolgirls. If you like the sound of this, and you happen to be in north London on 26 May, you can see them at the Lexington.
